The "Onion" Layers of LORE

The purpose of this page will be to provide a general overview of the story.

Layer 1 - Lore in 5 Minutes or Less

The Ingress Mobile App, which turns your mobile device into an XM Scanner, was released as part of a larger plan connected to Exotic Matter. It ties into the study of Exotic Matter (definition of XM) and provides study and XM manipulation by agents (players) who use the Scanner when “playing” the Ingress Game. Many groups are interested in using XM and learning more about it including the Niantic Project, Hulong, Visur, IQTech, Strategic Explorations, the NIA, Shapers and N'Zeer. Each group and person has their own agenda of what they want and how they are connected to the concept of Exotic Matter. Many individuals and groups can change how the scanner acts and often update the mobile app to reflect changes.

There are four basic types of interaction in the Ingress world:

Portal Hackers - people who play the Ingress Game using the mobile app

Lore/Story Trackers - people who investigate and review background information to understand the story behind Exotic Matter

Puzzle/Code Crackers - People who solve ciphers and puzzles to obtain more information such as Scanner passcodes (for Ingress game rewards), media drops (background story information) and other game information.

Social Yakkers - people who organize community events and social spaces (hangouts, chats, discussion boards, etc) for players to meet, greet, play and interact

Layer 2 - Lore in 15 Minutes

The first indication of the Niantic Project came in July 2012 at the San Francisco ComicCon event when an artist named Tycho began trying to raise awareness of the Niantic Project. Studying posters he left behind and following his website, people found an Investigation Board website. On November 1, 2012 P. A. Chapeau began an to post to that site. He at first focused on Exotic Matter and something called The Niantic Project. Additional information was leaked through g+ character accounts, Facebook and Twitter accounts. As more information was shared, it was shown that the Niantic Project was a small piece in a larger picture all tied to the concept of Exotic Matter. P.A. Chapeau released more and more documents, audio files and videos that exposed the different groups, people and studies associated with Exotic Matter.

In Mid-November, 2012, a mobile app was released called Ingress. It was a game where agents (players) pick one of two sides (named Enlightened and Resistance) and then perform different actions related to game mechanics that are connected to the concept of Exotic Matter. Many groups and individuals have tried to align with one of the two groups for different reasons.

Larger community events called anomalies occur at different times of the year. These events focus at specific geographic locations and have specific game mechanics of how to use the Ingress Scanner app during the event.

As more information has been released, it was discovered that the concept of Exotic Matter has been around for a very long time and many individuals throughout history have interacted with some aspect of Exotic Matter and related concepts.

Review the pages at the Investigate Ingress site for more specific information.

Layer 3 - Lore in about an Hour

As people try to use and learn more about Exotic Matter, they will align with different projects and groups. Here are some of the groups.

Enlightened

Resistance

Shapers

N'Zeer

Visur

IQTech

Hulong Transglobal

Strategic Explorations

Niantic Project

Project Whydah

1. Obtain a copy of Ingress Origins and read it through. You can check out this wiki page for a growing list of some of the hidden things in Origins.

2. Consume every page on the Official Ingress Help site - much is about the Ingress Gameplay, but there is Lore elements tied into many of the pages.

Layer 4 - Okay, I Want to Know More but Do Not Want to do A Lot of Work

Read the following Official Books and Blogs from Niantic Labs (in the order listed)

Layer 5 - I've Got Some Time to Kill

1. Consume Every page on Investigate Ingress

Layer 6 - Lore - the Extended Version (AKA MOAR LORE)

1. Consume EVERY Day at the original Niantic Project Timeline

2. Consume all of the Lore section at FevGames.net

Layer 7 - Lore - A lot of Extra Detail

2. Consume every Ingress Report on the Ingress Official Channel

Layer 8 - Lore - How to Dig really Deep Into the Story

1. Review all of the above Lore Sections

2. Watch Every Video on the Ingress and Niantic Project Channels

3. Join the Hangout chats for Project Isthmus and Operation Essex

4. Start Helping Add Pages to the wiki for missing content (Seriously, when making wiki pages you really learn the lore and story by default)

5. Keep Digging

The Inner Core - How to Really Obsess Over Lore

1. Consume EVERY page on this wiki

2. Go back and read ALL old posts from the Operation Essex G+ community

3. Review some Older groups such as

4. Watch Behind the Scanner Episodes (a lot of gameplay, but there are Lore references in many)